NL East Notes: Beltran, Sanchez, Nationals, Braves

The Marlins are the only NL East team whose second half begins tonight, as the Fish start a four-game series at Wrigley Field. The other four teams will begin intra-divisional matchups (Phillies at Mets, Nationals at Braves) on Friday. Here's the latest from the East…

The Carlos Beltran rumors are already swirling but the Mets will wait right until the deadline to move him, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. The Mets will wait, Heyman says, since the team still thinks it has a chance at the playoffs and because the club isn't sure Beltran would clear waivers.

The Marlins' organizational lack of pitching depth make them likely to pursue an extension with Anibal Sanchez, tweets Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 2012 is Sanchez's last arbitration-eligible year, so Rodriguez thinks an extension might cost a bit more than Josh Johnson's four-year, $39MM with the team since this deal would be cover more of Sanchez's free agent years.

Also from Rodriguez, Larry Beinfest said prospect Matt Dominguez is being considered by the Marlins for a September call-up. Dominguez was the 12th overall pick of the 2007 amateur draft and was ranked 81st on Baseball America's preseason list of the game's 100 best prospects. He hasn't hit well at Triple-A this season (a .239/.303/.394 line in 201 plate appearances) but Dominguez also spent a month recovering from a fractured elbow.

The Nationals announced the signings of four picks from this year's amateur draft. Right-hander Taylor Hill (a sixth-round pick) was the highest-selected of the four new Nats.

Frank Wren talks to Carroll Rogers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the Braves' needs at the trade deadline. Wren feels the return of Martin Prado and Chipper Jones from the DL will help the club's offense and thus Atlanta may just look for role players to come off the bench, sch as a right-handed bat. The Braves are often mentioned as a team that could move its pitching depth in a trade but Wren says that other clubs haven't contacted him about such deals "because I think they’re smart enough to know that we’re not going to be trading our young pitching unless there’s something extraordinary out there to us."